Steps Into New Worlds
by Huginn the Raven
Summary: Saffron defeats Ranma at Mt. Phoenix, nearly all was lost. Back home from China, Ranma starts growing as a martial artist and a person. His search for a cure to Jusenkyo's curse leads him to distant places with terrible enemies. This is his journey.
1. Disclaimer and other assorted odds

Disclaimer and other assorted odds and ends.

By this point it should be fairly obvious to anybody visiting that writers on the site don't own the 'canon' content of their stories. Still to avoid any possible bad consequences I'll bow to the established doctrine and print the disclaimer. Only once at the beginning of my story, should be enough. I find it redundant and ridiculous to post it for every chapter. Whatever happened to following the spirit of the thing.

Anyway, here goes:

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the content (characters, storyline, etc) that can readily be identified as belonging to the original creators. (Eg: Ranma, Akane, Happosai, Shin Shi Shi hokoudan , etc belong to Rumiko Takahashi and the rights holders to her work; the puzzle box belongs to whoever owns the rights to Hellraiser; etc, ad infinitum...though I don't know if a mention of just a puzzle box could actually be considered so. There's content from other works I might include later, so the same applies to that as well.)

Where the content is not attributable to canon owners I lay claim to it. (the alternate story line for instance...etc)

I'm not making any money from this. :End disclaimer.

FAQ:

Will there be mature themes?  
Yes. Violence, sex, and other mature elements will make their appearances; hopefully they won't dominate the story but instead serve to enhance it. Some parts will be fairly graphic others not so much.

Will there be lemons/limes?  
Perhaps, if it enhances the story. But off the top of my head I would say no. There might be mentions of sex and descriptions of nudity but actual sex scenes I will leave out or post separately. No slash.

What about crossovers?  
Yes, there most likely will be heavy use of crossovers. To what extent I'm not sure yet as of this posting. There are already small references or content crossovers throughout the first few chapters I've completed and will probably continue. The bigger stuff like world hopping might come later, we'll see.

Powers and abilities?  
There will be powerful abilities, though I will try to prevent ridiculous god-like power development. (I'm looking at you, Naruto fic writers. Seriously, 3 doujutsu?) (And definitely no saiyan-a-likes.) (If I decide to do a comic book cross from say, marvel or dc, I'll think of something for Ranma. He won't be a pushover.)

Will it be AU?  
Well, by definition, fan fiction would be AU anyway, but yes, there will be significant changes to canon and diversions thereafter.

Will the story be completed?  
I'll be up front and say. "I don't know." I'll give it my best shot but there are several reasons I can think of why it wouldn't:  
-If I feel the audience **overwhelmingly** doesn't appreciate it I'll discontinue posting.  
-If I write myself into a corner--I may do a rewrite in that case.  
-Real life gets in the way  
-There might come a time when I just don't feel like continuing the story. I'll try to wrap it up anyway; it just might not be as good a quality as I would wish it normally. We'll see on this point.

That's all for now.

On with the story.


	2. Prologue: Part 1

Prologue: Part 1

"Go to China, they said. Fight the phoenix king, they said. As if going up against a guy who even frightens the 'old ghoul' is so easily done," Ranma groused. He would, of course go to China. He owed the Tendo's after all. He was not going to take the possibility of encountering an enemy that could sling fireballs the size of small houses lightly though. Saotome Genma had not been able to instill many of his own principles or ideas into his son. Of all those that he had managed, however, 'survival' was the one that Ranma had ingrained into his psyche far deeper than any technique, even the psychotic _neko-ken_, could ever hope to reach.

With survival in mind, for the present and the future, Ranma was picking his way through Happosai's stash of artifacts. The old letch had left earlier in the week to spend some time terrorizing the women of Kyoto. Apparently there was an especially exotic swordswoman, whose panties the grandmaster of Anything Goes hadn't been able to steal during his last visit. Ranma briefly thought about how skillful she must be to thwart Happosai. Few could fend off the aged pervert when he was in his playful moods. None when he was serious. The thought of a serious Happosai caused Ranma to shiver for a moment. Happosai had only let the restraints on his ki loose once in all the three years Ranma had known him. Once had been enough for Ranma to know that it would take him several centuries to even be considered a match for the aged master. He never would have believed the difference in power between Happosai and everyone else. He doubted Saffron and Cologne combined could come close to taking on the little pervert.

Ranma hated it, but he needed an equalizer. Failing that; at least something to prevent the first fireball to come his way from burning him to ash. From his understanding, the phoenix pill he'd received from the Chinese Amazons would only help him to an unknown extent, before the phoenix fire incinerated him.

Rooting around Happosai's stash of stolen goods Ranma was at a loss. Happosai didn't keep a list or any other means to easily identify what he needed. In fact, most of the items looked haphazardly thrown together. So far, he'd found all sorts of thing that wouldn't do him any good. There were scrolls to summon unmentionable horrors, artifacts that could do all sorts of strange and bizarre things, even a weird puzzle box that just screamed all sorts of bad to Ranma's ki senses. He'd almost smashed a jar of what looked to be an octopus-head when one of the tentacles had twitched. None of the items looked especially benign.

Ranma was about to give up and leave the room, when he caught a scent he was very familiar with. Sushi. Following his nose, he quickly identified a small plastic box from which the delicious smell was emanating. The lid was slightly elevated at one of the corners, allowing air flow. He must have jostled the box while looking around, indirectly disturbing the lid. Opening the container further, he discovered several pink juicy pieces of sushi inside. Happosai must have forgotten to pack these before he left. Ingrained reflexes took hold and he scarfed down the lot, proving himself indeed the son of Genma. No sense to let good sushi go to waste. Ranma didn't bother to think that the sushi would have been there for several days between Happosai's departure and his own attempt at thievery and most likely spoiled. Or that it might not actually have been sushi at all.

It did occur to him several minutes later, when his stomach revolted and his body started shaking. His veins felt as if liquid fire was running through them. Cursing himself for a fool, Ranma made his way back to his room as best he could. Stumbling, he barely made it to his bedroll before he fell down face first. He needed to calm the fire in his veins before he could concentrate on anything else. Struggling to concentrate, he took a deep breath, and quickly began to gather his ki. Using ki to heal internally could be dangerous. The possibility of a small error causing exponential damage was always a risk. Ranma wasn't a ki master; he'd barely started on the road to being an adept. Add to that his currently panicked mental state and as soon as Ranma began to heal the poison running through his veins, he went into cardiac arrest.

For several minutes Ranma's heart lay still, his body lifeless.

A beat. Two beats. His heart restarted to its normal sleep rhythm.

Several hours later Ranma awoke feeling rejuvenated. He felt better than he had in several months even. He was confused, however, as to why he was waking up in the middle of the day. Had his father let him sleep in? With a start he remembered Akane. With a flash he was up and out of the room. No memory of that morning's events remained.


	3. Prologue: Part 2

Prologue: Part 2

"What a disaster," was the thought running through Ranma's head. He and the others were on their way back to Japan after the fight at Phoenix Mountain, Akane once again restored to her normal body. Uncharacteristically, she was leaning against Ryoga as they all sat in a compartment, the train heading for Shanghai, from there they would catch a ship back to Japan.

He supposed he understood why Akane was behaving that way. Ryoga had truly come through for them all this time. Idly, Ranma seriously wondered if Akane and Ryoga wouldn't make a much better match. Akane had clearly latched on to Ryoga as her knight in shining armor. He supposed it was almost right out of one of those romance novels he saw Akane borrow from Kasumi. Sighing he went back to contemplating his fight with the phoenix king.

It had been obvious from the beginning of their fight; while Ranma held the advantage of skill and physical ability, he was just barely a match for Saffron's regeneration and overwhelming magical power. The phoenix pill seemed to protect him to a certain extent from the indirect effects of the heat, being in the same room as Saffron was like standing inside a large oven with temperatures that could char anything to a crisp within minutes. The pill wouldn't protect him from direct contact with the flames however. Halfway through the battle he had already suffered third degree burns along parts of his arms and legs.

Then, only for a millisecond, he'd been distracted, dodging a piece of falling debris. That was all it had taken for Saffron to launch a fireball the size of semi-truck. Ranma had been able to evade partially, but his back was glanced directly by the flames. The magical fire consumed his clothing instantly, and ate at his flesh. Fat, liquefied in the intense heat and acting like boiling oil, had burnt tracks into his skin where it dribbled down his back, muscles cooked through, and the back of a rib bone visible.

Saffron, proving he was just as petty as any other evil mastermind, had started gloating over his fallen opponent, missing Mousse and Ryoga's entrance into the cavernous chamber. He didn't miss the green glow of the truly humungous _Shin Shi Shi Hokoudan_ that slammed into him only a moment after he felt barbed chains wrap around his form. Saffron's had vanished as the pillar of ki crashed into him, obliterating much of his body upon impact and when the green ki had faded, and where he had stood chained, lay an egg.

Guilt over his failure had irrationally led Ranma to hide the severity of his wounds, downplaying them. It was his intention to have them serve him as punishment and reminder. He'd been a little worried right after the battle, when he'd used his ki to get a sense of the damage to his body. An hour later, he'd felt a soothing sensation run down his back. He'd been both dismayed and happy to discover his back wound healing at an accelerated pace, and his other wounds already completely healed, though he kept the bandages on. Powerful martial artists could mold their bodies into amazing conditions, with fantastical abilities that seemed to defy explanation; Happosai at four hundred years old and Cologne at three hundred were but small examples. Yet for all that such feats were possible, they took much time and effort to develop and master. But even Ranma understood that the healing he had just undergone wasn't something a martial artist would be able to develop, no matter the circumstance. He would wait to reveal his healing until after he talked to Dr. Tofu.


	4. Prologue: Part 3

Prologue: Part 3

Ranma's wounds from his fight with Saffron had disappeared completely by the time he arrived back in Nerima with the others. Fortunately, it had gone unnoticed or at least unremarked. He had sought out Dr. Tofu as soon as opportunity had arisen to leave unaccompanied. Dr. Tofu hadn't been much help unfortunately. The good doctor was primarily a general practitioner and shiatsu specialist who could use ki to heal. His education didn't extend into research. However, he had been able to rule out ki as a component to Ranma's healing. The ki levels present matched those naturally permeating the body.

While Dr. Tofu promised to search for information on Ranma's new ability, any actual research would have to be done at a proper lab, something he warned Ranma against, at least for the time being. The risks of one of the lab technicians reporting any anomalous results, sure to be present, were too high. So Ranma had continued to conceal his rapid healing from his friends and family, fearing their reaction.

He didn't precisely expect repulsion; instead from the Amazons he feared increased efforts to bind him to the Joketsuzoku and his rivals would no doubt label him an even greater cheater. That left his fiancés, and he really couldn't predict how they might react. Though he suspected it was nothing good for him at least.

Time marched on in Nerima, and as things were wont to do, they changed. The greatest change for Ranma was his acceptance of Happosai as master. The perverted grandmaster had given him an ultimatum after his loss against Saffron. Acknowledge him as master and receive training or forfeit the Anything Goes style. The 46 cm tall Master of the Anything Goes style hadn't taken news of Ranma's defeat well.

At first, Ranma had thought Happosai was kidding. But when he observed the ancient grandmaster studying from the scroll that held secrets like the _Ultimate Weakness_ _Moxibustion_ technique, he quickly changed his mind. The chance of Happosai possessing a technique that could destroy his ability to practice the Art wasn't as farfetched as he wished, not after Happosai had previously tried to condemn him to living life strengthless.

He had grudgingly accepted. He needed the old master. Needed the old sadist to drive him further, beyond the limits he placed on himself. He needed to learn what his father couldn't teach him. Craved it even.

Ranma didn't particularly enjoy being instructed by Happosai, but necessity and a certain amount of fear had driven him. Finally the only solution he could think of was accepting Happosai as his master. Ranma had grudgingly kowtowed to the little gremlin, and Happosai had let everybody know just how much he enjoyed Ranma's humiliation.

The training Ranma had endured under his father, Saotome Genma, had been inhumane, beyond the scope of a normal human's capability to survive, and had he been anybody else, it would have left him broken and dead in the middle of nowhere a long time ago. Ranma endured his father's training however, and had come out on top of it, stronger than humanly possible.

Then he had come into Happosai's care.

Apparently Happosai was under the misapprehension that Genma's blood relation to Ranma had caused him to be more lenient than he should have been. Never mind the near starvation, the wolves, the bears, the cliffs, and all the other deadly situations Genma had put his son through. As a result, Happosai saw it as his calling to compensate for Genma's laxity.

Happosai's training consisted of three modes, torturing his new student with unspeakably brutal work outs, more diabolical training, and finally, humiliating his student with perversity. When Happosai wasn't forcing Ranma through some kind of merciless training, he was forcing Ranma-chan to model some of his "silky darlings," or dragging him along on his voyeur and panty raids.

If perverted activities and pandering to the pervert's wishes were the price he paid for Happosai's tutelage; he'd endure them. Training under the diminutive grandmaster had expanded his understanding of the Art by leaps and bounds. Happosai knew ways of training Ranma had never even considered. His new and increasing power simply astounded him. He could barely recognize himself sometimes.

Now he could understand why his father and Mr. Tendo had endured 'the Dreaded Master' for as long as they had. Happosai had taken two rather unremarkable martial artists and turned them into truly superior fighters. Genma especially had turned into a brilliant tactician and strategist, and the techniques he created were brilliant. They weren't the most powerful of their generation, they lacked the drive, discipline, and talent for being the very best, but they could boast that only the most prodigal and powerful could defeat them.

Under Happosai's tutelage, as cruel as it could be, Ranma had truly excelled even beyond his own expectations. Cruel, petty, sadistic, and hateful all described Happosai perfectly, but if there was one thing he cared as much about as his 'silky darlings' and his other perverse pleasures, it was the school of martial arts he had founded. It didn't matter that Happosai still had a good hundred plus years of life in him; Ranma was the only qualified heir he'd discovered in generations. It helped tremendously that Ranma had more raw potential in his pinky than any other martial artist Happosai had encountered since the dawn of electricity. That is why Happosai, no matter how flawed his character and how cruel his methods, truly poured his all into forging Ranma into the greatest martial artist the world had ever seen and would ever see.

And if that meant beating Ranma to a pulp every other day or forcing him to learn things he considered perverted, then so be it.


End file.
